City studies Innisfil land

Barrie is planning how to develop 2,293 hectares of land still officially in Innisfil.

On the city’s southern edge, the land – now mostly zoned agricultural – borders industrial areas nearest Highway 400, and residential areas further east and further west.

And now Barrie is fast-tracking an employment lands study to ensure the city has a well-rounded stock of attractive land for industry.

The study also freezes the city’s ability to convert land from industrial to non-employment ones, such as residential, commercial and institutional. Throughout the 1990s, the city made such conversions and turned the Mapleview Drive area from an industrial area to a commercial hub, which has created some tensions with nearby industries, tensions that peaked during the Park Place Ontario Municipal Board hearing in 2006.

The city then began arguing it needed more industrial land and began boundary talks with Innisfil.

“With the seven-year logjam broken, now we have the opportunity to get moving,” said Coun. Jeff Lehman. “We do want to move expeditiously.”

According to Ontario’s Simcoe Area: A Strategic Vision for Growth, Barrie will grow not only in population – to 210,000 by 2031 – but its stock of jobs must grow as well. Ontario expects the city to attract 36,700 more jobs over that time, to accommodate a total of 101,000 jobs, almost one job per person, to reduce commuting, protect the environment and create a complete live-work-play community.

Barrie is also in the midst of an economic development strategy. A report is due in the fall and is expected to focus the city’s energies on certain industries or sectors – possibly the creative sector that includes engineering research and development and the arts, which would include film and design.

City staff is also continuing to work on providing services – such as snowplowing and garbage pickup – for the new areas, effective Jan. 1, should Bill 196, the Barrie-Innisfil Boundary Act, pass.

The city is also planning to extend the boundaries of wards six through 10.